It is the last week of January, and blossoms of fuchsia and white
coleus in flower beds all along Via Veneto are opening to the morning sun.
Spreading plane trees seem about to bud. A few brave souls have even
ventured out of the cafes, cup and saucer in hand, to sip their espresso
at an outdoor table. Can primavera be in the air? So it would seem this
beautiful morning standing on the corner of Via Veneto and Via Boncompagni,
across the way from the pink villa that houses the American Embassy and
just in front of the beautiful white palace that is the Westin Excelsior
Hotel.

A beaux arts building with a single corner dome, the Excelsior embodies
the very essence of the flamboyant, fashionable boulevard that is Via
Veneto. Strolling among elegantly dressed Romans past five-star hotels,
swanky restaurants, posh shops, and sidewalk cafés, it is hard to believe
that around the turn of the last century this thoroughfare was a quiet
road on the outskirts of the city that carriages crossed to connect from
one larger byway to another and locals used for games of bocce. A more
unlikely locale for a 200-room luxury hotel would be hard to imagine. Yet
here was where the Excelsior was built, opening its doors in January 1906.

Despite expectations, the hotel was an almost instant success and over
the decades evolved into one of the great hotels of the world. And as it
did, Via Veneto basked in its glow. By the post war years, the one-time
sleepy country road had been transformed into a glittering byway
frequented by an international crowd of the cognosotti with
“paparazzi” in their wake, immortalized as the mythic byway of high
style and modernity in Fellini’s “La Dolce Vita.” But it was the
Excelsior Hotel, standing at the apex of a triangle with the Borghese
Gardens and Spanish Steps at either end, that brought the world to this
crossroads of Rome. There is not only Imperial Rome, Renaissance
Rome, and Baroque Rome, but Modern Rome. It is epitomized by Via Veneto,
and the Excelsior Hotel is at its heart.

It is a large property with 316 rooms and function areas for
up to 1,000 people. The lobby is predictably palatial. Brilliant
chandeliers hang from soaring ceilings, floors are gleaming marble,
windows are draped with rich golden fabric and Roman (what else?)
shades. Yet despite the grandeur, the atmosphere is inviting.
Luxurious Empire furnishings are arranged into comfortable seating
areas. Staff members are congenial and helpful. The ambience is one
of gracious informality, a quality personified by the Excelsior’s
exuberant general manager, Paolo Lorenzoni.

When he began working as banquet manager in 1990, the mood at the
Excelsior was very different, Paolo told us. “There was a snob approach.
The thinking was we are the best. Who cares about the customers?” he
said. “Today we think about the customers. We want them to feel at
home. If they have any problem, whether or not it’s related to the
hotel, we are at their disposal.”

This comment brought to mind an anecdote told to us by Sirio Maccioni,
the owner of Le Cirque 2000 in New York City. When he began as maitre d’
of the Colony, a one-time exclusive Manhattan restaurant, he approached a
table of diners and asked if everything was all right. The owner swiftly
called him aside. “At the Colony, everything is always all right,” he
said. “Today, with an attitude like that, a restaurant wouldn’t last a
day in New York,” Sirio said.

Palatial interior at the Westin Excelsior
Hotel

At the Excelsior, the change in attitude was spurred by a change
in ownership in 1997 when Starwood Hotels and Resorts took over the
hotel making it a Westin property, a name familiar to North American
visitors. Beyond changing the mood, Starwood invested $25 million in
a refurbishment project that began in December 2000 and is expected
to be completed this year -- although whatever construction
was going on during our stay was completely concealed behind closed
and evidently soundproofed doors.

“The Excelsior was the flagship hotel in Italy,” Paolo said, “but
it was tired and old. It needed to be brought up to date. We’re putting
in all the new technology, restoring the art, putting in new fabrics and
carpeting. But the personality and décor remains as it was.”

Our two-room suite had already been renovated. Embraced by a
wrap-around balcony that overlooked Via Veneto and the American Embassy,
it seemed like a glorious turn-of-the (last) century apartment, stunning
to the very last detail of period furnishings in Roman red and gold. But
in terms of communications connections and modern amenities, it was
twenty-first century all the way.

Before the hotel-wide refurbishment got underway, Starwood had already
inaugurated the duplex beneath the dome: the Excelsior’s fabulous Villa
La Cupola. With a sundeck that overlooks all of Rome to the dome of St.
Peter, a private cinema (with a DVD library of more than one hundred
films), sauna, steam bath, and fitness center, the Villa La Cupola is an
11,700 square-foot suite befitting a Ceasar. There is a dining room lit by
an antique Murano chandelier and served by a private wine cellar, a study
paneled in Italian walnut, a pair of opulently furnished bedrooms. Still
nothing prepares one for the cupola itself, the domed ceiling of the
living room. Covered with hand painted frescoes that were inspired by the
art in Roman palaces of the renaissance and baroque periods, it is no less
than breathtaking.

The frescoed domed ceiling in the Villa La Cupola

Beneath the domed ceiling in the Villa La
Cupola

Our tour of the regal quarters of the Villa La Cupola on the fifth and
sixth floors was followed by a lunch at La Cupola without the Villa on the
ground floor. Paolo Lorenzoni joined us at the Excelsior’s popular
restaurant which typically draws a crowd of Romans for both lunch and
dinner. A buffet was set out on a balcony beneath a classical-looking bas
relief, but following our host, we ordered from the a la carte menu:
caviar with fresh goat cheese and grilled whitefish with artichokes
“done in the Roman style,” according to Paolo, “where the heart is
stuffed with a paste of parsley, garlic and olive oil and cooked in olive
oil with a little water. I learned from my father to do it.” At
Paolo’s suggestion, we drank “one of the most important of Italian red
wines,” a 1997 Turriga from Sardinia which was full-bodied and rich with
an excellent finish.

The exuberant general manager: Paolo Lorenzoni

Umberto Vezzoli, Executive Chef stopped by our
table

We were surprised when dressed in his chef’s whites, Umberto Vezzoli
stopped by our table. We had already met Umberto at Vivendo, the
gastronomic restaurant at the nearby St. Regis Grand Hotel which is also
operated by Starwood. “Umberto is the Executive Chef of both hotels,”
Paolo explained. “Each has a different type of kitchen. Vivendo is
contemporary Italian; La Cupola is a more traditional Roman kitchen. We
are looking to expand our menu, to turn the buffet level into an open
kitchen so people can watch the cooking. People want something new.”

Busy, bustling La Cupola

True, but we were enjoying La Cupola just the way it was, busy and
bustling with a lively Roman crowd and an air of joie de vivre on
this spring-like afternoon. We could imagine the scene in warmer
weather when the big awning was rolled down over the sidewalk of Via
Veneto and tables were set up along the boulevard. Adjacent to La
Cupola is the Gran Caffe Doney, the Excelsior’s famed coffee shop
which also spills out onto the sidewalk. It remains the scene where
celebrities congregate. “Roberto Bellini (the star of “Life is
Beautiful”) comes in very often,” Paolo told us, “goes to the
bar, has a sandwich.”

Paolo is steeped in the legends and history of the Excelsior. He’s
heard about the movie stars from the time of “La Dolce Vita” like
Anita Ekbert and Audrey Hepburn who were regular guests. He’s heard
about how the Excelsior served as headquarters of the American Allied
Forces headed by General Clark at the end of World War II. And he senses
history is in the making during his tenure at this famous hotel. “We are
the typical place for American functions. During the elections, CNN and
ABC were stationed here. All the Americans in Rome come to see the
coverage. Madeline Albright, Collin Powell have been here along with many
important political figures. It is our job to manage security for them.”

At one time Paolo thought of going into banking. He contemplated
working for an airline. “I’m glad I didn’t,” he told us.
“Working for a company like Starwood is terrific. There are so many
challenges. I was able to go to Paris with the mayor of Rome to meet the
mayor of Paris. I was the only hotelier in the delegation, selected
because of the Excelsior.

“When I was younger, I passed in front of this hotel many, many
times,” he added. “I always looked in, but I never imagined that one
day I’d be the G.M.

“The Via Veneto is the street with seven hotels. However the
Excelsior is the most famous and the most beautiful. Someone may say
‘I’ve been in Rome at the so and so hotel. The service was good, the
room was huge.’ People will say ‘Oh? I don’t know this
hotel.’ But if someone says ‘I’ve been in Rome and I stayed at the
Excelsior,’ people will say ‘Oh, the Excelsior.’ And you are proud
because you have been in a hotel that other people know.’”

Now he turns to us. “You have stayed here. What do you think of the
Excelsior?”

About the Authors: Myrna Katz Frommer and Harvey Frommer are a wife and husband
team who successfully bridge the worlds of popular culture and traditional
scholarship. Co-authors of the critically acclaimed interactive oral histories
It Happened in the Catskills, It Happened in Brooklyn, Growing Up Jewish in
America, It Happened on Broadway, It Happened in Manhattan, It Happened in
Miami. They teach what they practice as professors at Dartmouth College.

They are also travel writers who specialize in luxury properties and fine dining
as well as cultural history and Jewish history and heritage in the United
States, Europe, and the Caribbean. More
about these authors.